What Nigerian Senators Earn Monthly – Senate Leader Ndoma-Egba

The highest paid senator earns no more than N900, 000 monthly in basic salary, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) has said.

He said claims that lawmakers earn "jumbo" salaries were not true, and that he once earned N25,000 per month in the Senate.

He said contrary to the figures peddled in the media, only five per cent of the national budget goes to the National Assembly.

The senator wondered why Nigerians were not asking questions about how the remaining 95 per cent is utilised, adding that citizens are only being distracted from the real issues.

Ndoma-Egba spoke while responding to a presentation by Prof. Nsongurua Udombana at programme organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) at the ongoing Annual General Conference in Calabar, Cross River State.

Udombana, a professor of International Law, in his paper titled 'Justice in Public Interest', said corruption eats up the country, while the hard work of the many is being lost to the selfish desires of a few.

He criticized the National Assembly's salary structure, which he said was among the highest in the world.

According to him, as at 2009, a senator in Nigeria earned N240million (about $1.7million) in salaries and allowances, while his United States counterparts earned $174,000 and his United Kingdom counterparts earned about $100, 000 annually.

But Ndoma-Egab said the tales of jumbo pay is fable.
"When I got to the Senate in 2003, my salary in the first three months was N25, 000."
"I can tell you here and now that the highest paid senator in Nigeria earns not more than N900, 000!"
"In the figure released recently, I am supposed to earn the same salary as a Supreme Court Justice and a minister, but their salaries are not called 'jumbo pay'," he said.